On the Home Page you will have seen a shield with three divisions, one on top of each other. The original hangs in the little church at Craveggia (see right) in the northern Alps in Italy close to the Swiss border. This village is stuffed full of Mellerio families and this shield is that of the family. The top shows the Italian eagle. The middle shows mountains - very appropriate considering where the Mellerio homelands seem to be. The bottom division shows what an Italian Mellerio said to me was, "a nasty hard fruit, but I don't know the English name." It turns out that this fruit is the medlar.
For as long as I have been into gardening, and long before I discovered the Craveggia shield, I hankered for a medlar tree in my garden. Perhaps this was an atavistic memory which was eventually quieted when a daughter gave me a young medlar tree. It has been growing now for fifteen years and produces lots of lovely medlars as you can see in the pictures.
But what do you do with medlars? You leave them on the tree until October when they are begining to go slightly soft. You pick and then allow to ret - that is to go quite wrinkly and soft. If you were a Vicrorian, you might eat them at this stage with cream. I don't think this is a good idea even if the medlars are full of vitamins and healthy stuff like that. Today, people make jelly with them. As you see, the jelly is a lovely clear red colour. We use it instead of red currant jelly. It is good with lamb and a large dollop in a lamb stew improves the flavour. The best use, to my mind, is to get a warm scone, slice in half and butter well and then add a generous portion of medlar jelly. Yum yum - it's what winter tea time was invented for.
RECIPE
Many recipes are fussy and longwinded - the simplest recipe that has been used here for many years is set out below. It produces the wonderful clear jelly pictured on the right allthough at one stage the pan is full of the most disgusting looking brown, err, stuff. Don't be disheartend, carry on and be enchanted by the transformation from brown yuk to beautiful clear pink.
- Medlars should be picked and then stored until soft (retted), but not mouldy.
- Wash the fruit and place in a large preserving pan and cover with water.
- Simmer until split and cooked.
- Remove from the heat and mash gently (this is the yuk stage).
- Put fruit and juice in muslin - or an old, clean pillowcase will do - and suspend over a large bowl to drip overnight.
- Discard fruit and measure juice which is brown.
- Return to preserving pan.
- To every pint of juice add a pound of sugar.
- Heat and stir until sugar is dissolved.
- Bring to the boil and boil rapidly until setting point is reached, i.e. a little cooled on a saucer will wrinkle when pushed. This is the transformation stage from unappetising brown to rose pink.
- Remove from heat and allow to cool.
- Place in clean jars and cover.
Enjoy.
